The Nuggets should have the inside track to re-sign Nene.

The team can pay him more money than any other team and his wife is a native of the state, leading him to plan on making Colorado his permanent home when he retries.

But it may not be enough to entice him to stay with the team.

“I learned last season that this was a business,” Nene told Yahoo! Sports. “No matter how nice you are to people, no matter how nice people are to you, this is a business. I did my best for the team and they waited and waited to extend me. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, all these years playing good, doing your best and they still test you.’ That’s not about family, love and somebody liking you. It’s a business.

“So how do I think about [free agency]? I want to be happy. I want to improve my game. I want to enjoy it. It was very stressful for me and I don’t want to go through this in my career anymore.”

Nene made $11.3 million in the final season of his contract.

Nene expected an extension offer from the Nuggets, but waited until just before the lockout to propose a four-year, $50 million deal, say sources.

Nene says he likely would have accepted the offer had it come during the season.

“When the season was over they didn’t offer me nothing good,” said Nene. “It’s hard. When my option came, it was good for my side and I to seize the opportunity of free agency. I tried to make a deal before that. Yes, I would have signed before the end of the season. But after the season was done, after going into the summer and waiting a little more in the summer, they ask me to sign?

“There was so much pressure on my shoulders. It was hard for me and I still did my job.”

Asked about his relationship with the franchise now, he said: “I like the organization. I do need to be professional just like they were with me. They did what was best for them, and now I need to do what is best for me.”

The difference between Carmelo Anthony’s existing contract and the one he could have received as a free agent under the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement comes out to a total of $5.8 million over the same four years.

$82.69 million is the total value of Anthony’s existing contract, which arose out of the extend-and-trade transaction sending Anthony from Denver to the Knicks before the trade deadline last season. Had Anthony opted to terminate his contract and become a free agent in the coming days, he would have been eligible for a maximum-salary contract of $76.89 million over a period from this 2011-12 season through the 2014-15 season, the identical term of his existing contract. 

Note that the extension Anthony did sign was built off the $18.52 million option year he held in this 2011-12 season. Any new free-agent max deal would have reset and started at $18.01 million. That lower starting point and the lesser annual raises of 4.5% – compared to the 10.5% annual raises that governed Anthony’s contract under the previous CBA – account for the $5.8 million of compensation that Anthony would have lost by becoming a free agent on December 9. Essentially Anthony would have taken a seven percent reduction in pay.

In the months before the trade to New York, Anthony gave mixed signals about his willingness to wait for free agency and risk a new salary cap that could significantly decrease his earning capacity. But it was believed that Anthony’s representatives at Creative Arts Agency were determined that their client would have the security of a signed deal before the CBA expired. The Nets were in the hunt to trade for Anthony and extend his contract, and the Nuggets reportedly preferred the Nets’ offer, both teams hoping anxiety about the impending labor dispute would compel Anthony to sign off on a move to New Jersey. 

At the time, some at ESPN were predicting that Anthony could face dramatic salary compression approaching $40 million if he passed on the extension and tested free agency this season.

Existing Contract Under Previous CBA

$18,518,574
$19,444,503
$21,388,953
$23,333,456 
------------
$82,685,486 

Hypothetical Contract Under New CBA

$18,006,705 
$18,817,007
$19,627,309
$20,437,611 
------------
$76,888,632

Many players were reluctant to sign in China after a rule was established that there would be no provision to allow them to opt out if the NBA lockout was resolved.

Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith are amongst the players who signed in China and there appears to be no willingness on the part of their teams to release them from their contact, according to sources.

J.R. Smith was carried off the floor in his Chinese Basketball Association debut.

Smith's father Earl said that his son would soon be undergoing an MRI, but that he was "walking around and just sore."

Smith signed a $3 million contract in September.